Variation Among Aliquots of Entire Chicken Homogenates

Preparation of dry homogenates of entire adult chickens is impeded by the need to lyophilize large quantities of wet material. Three adult cockerels were reduced to wet homogenates from which successive aliquots (10% by weight) were drawn. The aliquots were dried and assayed in duplicate for gross energy and in triplicate for nitrogen. Statistical analyses of estimates of total energy and nitrogen per aliquot revealed only small differences among the first nine aliquots within birds. Energy and nitrogen contents of the tenth aliquot were consistently lower than the mean of the other nine aliquots but, in absolute terms, the differences were small. A 10% aliquot of a wet homogenate when lyophilized, ground, and analyzed permits satisfactory estimates of total energy and nitrogen in the bird.